Attorney General Racine Marks Human Trafficking Awareness Month 2018 with New Resources and Educational Outreach

OAG Public Safety and Family Services Attorneys Will Focus on Trafficking Cases Full-

WASHINGTON, D.C. – January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is committed to providing children and responsible adults with the tools they need to protect minors from human trafficking. Today, Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced that his office has employed new resources to fight trafficking in the District and is marking the month with educational outreach to students in D.C. Public Schools and to judges, prosecutors and advocates who work with children.

“We are committed to protecting kids in the District from human trafficking,” Attorney General Racine said. “That’s why we’re bolstering our efforts to identify and help trafficking victims and to teach kids and the adults who care from them to protect them from becoming victims in the first place.”

New Trafficking Attorney Position
Attorney General Racine has created a new attorney position in OAG’s Family Services Division who will focus full-time on spotting cases of potential trafficking among children involved in the District’s abuse-and-neglect system. They will collaborate with the District’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) to link possible victims of trafficking to the services they need. This attorney for abuse-and-neglect cases augments OAG’s existing efforts, which include a prosecutor in OAG’s Public Safety Division dedicated to dealing with cases where the juvenile respondent is a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. This prosecutor also works to ensure the young person receives the services he or she needs.

Trafficking Prevention Training for DCPS Students
The OAG Human Trafficking Task Force, which was launched last year, and the District’s Citywide Human Trafficking Task Force co-sponsored a workshop on Thursday, January 18 for to train D.C. Public Schools students on how to protect themselves, their friends and classmates from potential traffickers. The training was held at McKinley Middle School and live-streamed to students at the School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens Education Campus, Johnson Middle School, and H.D. Woodson High School.

Brown Bag Workshops on Trafficking January 19th and 26th
OAG’s Human Trafficking Task Force is also hosting two brown-bag conversations to educate judges, attorneys, social workers and others involved in the juvenile justice and child-welfare systems on how to prevent trafficking. They will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday, January 19th (at 441 4th Street NW, Room 1107) and Friday, January 26th (at 441 4th Street NW, Old Council Chambers) and feature law-enforcement officials, advocates for trafficking victims, and trafficking survivors.

Help for Trafficking Victims
For more information and resources on human trafficking, visit OAG’s Human Trafficking Initiatives website here. If you think you or someone you know may be a victim of trafficking:

  • Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888;
  • Text “Help” to 233733 (BeFree); or
  • Call the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 202-671- SAFE (7233).